President Obama is one cool, laid-back dude.

If he's sweating the upcoming election, you sure wouldn't know it. Even with this toilet-bowl economy, a recent New York Times Magazine piece saying he's an underdog to win reelection, and a key, Latino electorate that's not as yes-we-can about this guy as it was in 2008, Obama's chillin' like a villain.

We actually like his do-nothing strategy for securing the Latino vote:

We may just run clips of the Republican debates verbatim. We won't even comment on them, we'll just run those in a loop on Univision and Telemundo, and people can make up their own minds.

That's what he told reporters at the White House this week (via Reuters).

Wow.

Remember the days when Republicans actually reached out to Latinos? Those days are so far gone that the leading candidates' own anti-illegal-immigrant stances are enough to condemn them and bring them over to the Dems, Obama is arguing.

Latinos haven't been happy with the president's pace on immigration reform. They want some amnesty for family members of those here legally. So far Obama's immigration resume is dominated by a historic buildup — some call it a militarization — of Mexican busters along the border.

This might be enough for Latinos to sour on a president many of them once considered to be a compadre.

BUT … Republicans have veered so far right on immigration — Herman Cain actually suggested electrifying “the fence” — that Obama admits he could just cruise.

Irony? The main Republican line on immigration seems to be the same old stuff: Shore up the border. Send in the troops. Build a better, stronger, longer fence.

It's all stuff Obama has done already.

[@dennisjromero/djromero@laweekly.com/@LAWeeklyNews]

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